KIRKUS REVIEW

A millennial’s account of
how she went from being the girl all her female friends wanted at their
weddings to a professional bridesmaid.

The thought of weddings
never inspired Glantz, who founded Bridesmaid for Hire. As a child, she
wondered about which toy she’d find in her next McDonald’s Happy Meal, while
other girls contemplated “the cuts of their future [wedding] rings, the colors
of their future flowers, and the flavors of their future cakes.” By the time she
graduated from college, Glantz had become a veteran of “bad dates…email
breakups [and] Tinder messages full of bad grammar and lame come-ons,” while
her friends had settled into long-term relationships. A chance encounter with a
soon-to-be-married friend drove the author to shake up her life with a move to
New York. Finding work as a “bottom-level PR assistant” with a salary that
“resemble[d] that of a top-level intern,” she was soon under pressure from her
mother to find a husband or, at the very least, freeze her eggs. In the
meantime, she found herself attending—and very often saving—her friends’
weddings. On a half-drunk whim, Glantz put an offer on Craigslist to provide
“professional bridesmaid” services, which included making sure other bridesmaids
didn’t “paint their nails lime green” and “holding up the 18 layers of [a
wedding dress]” while brides used the bathroom. Her post went viral, and soon
she was besieged with requests from brides all over the country. Yet temporary
celebrity did nothing for her professional life, which at one point included
three jobs. But as she continued working with brides, Glantz learned more about
love than she imagined. Some married “the first person they kissed”; others,
like the woman with a gay boyfriend, married people who could never fully
return their love. Funny and at times touching, the book is a thoroughly modern
story about love and youth, right down to the open, not necessarily
happy-ever-after ending.

Be the first to discover new talent!
Each week, our editors select the one author and one book they believe to be most worthy of your attention and highlight them in our Pro Connect email alert.
Sign up here to receive your FREE alerts.